Odisha to nudge Centre on Posco issue

With uncertainty looming over Posco's Rs 52,000-crore greenfield project, the Odisha government today said it will approach the Centre to hold a meeting with the officials of the steel major, which had proposed to set up a 12 mtpa steel mill near Paradip.
The decision in this regard was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnik and attended by Steel and Mines Mminister Prafulla Kumar Mallick.
Though the Posco project had progressed to a certain extent at the ground level here, the company has reportedly decided to put its Odisha project on hold after the Centre made it clear that the steel major has to participate in the open bidding process in order to get raw material linkage under the new the MMDR Act.

While Posco is yet to officially intimate Odisha government about its decision of holding the Odisha project on hold, it has recently entered into an agreement with Uttam Steel and Power to do a feasibility study to set up a 3 MTPA integrated steel plant in Maharashtra.
This has irked the Odisha government, an official said.
"The chief secretary has been asked to discuss the Posco issue with the central government. The Centre will be requested to fix a date for holding of the discussions. Representatives of the central and state governments and Posco will remain present during the discussions," Mallick told reporters after the high level meeting.

Stating that the state government has no information on Posco setting up plants outside Odisha, he said the company should first come forward to hold discussions on whether it will set up its plant in Odisha or not.

"It should first spell out what kind of cooperation it expects from the state government. The state government will do whatever is possible under the law," Mallick said.
A delegation of BJD MPs had on August 12 met Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi and sought his intervention in the Posco issue. Jaitley had reportedly assured them to look into the matter.

Posco signed MoU for setting up a 12 mtpa greenfeild steel facility near Paradip with the state govenrment in 2005. However, the project could not be implemented so far due to some reason or the other.
Though the state government had apparently solved the land acquisition problem for the Posco project, the company was unable to get raw material linkage on the basis of the state government's recommendation in its favour due to the new MMDR Act.